title: Chinese herbal medicine in treatment of polyhydramnios:a meta-analysis and systematic review.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine (therapy A) or Chinese herbal medicine plus indomethacin (therapy B) with that of indomethacin alone (therapy C) in treating polyhydramnios.
  
  
  METHODS
  Literatures published up to April 2012 were retrieved from PubMed, Embase and Cochrane library, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific and Technological Periodical Database (VIP), Wangfang, and Traditional Chinese Medicine online. Two researchers collected data independently. The assessment of methodological quality was based on Cochrane handbook and the materials were analyzed with software RevMan 5.1.2. The outcome measure index was relative risk or difference of mean value (95% confidence interval). The following outcomes were evaluated (1) general clinical improvement rate; (2) maximum vertical pocket depth; (3) amniotic fluid index (AFI) value; (4) rate of fetal ductus arteriosus constriction; (5) incidence of adverse events.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on the search strategy, 5 trails involving 1017 patients were finally included. Compared with therapy C, therapy A decreased the rate of fetal ductus arteriosus constriction (P<0.01). Therapy B was more effective than therapy C in general clinical improvement and decrease of AFI for polyhydramnios (P<0.01). No serious adverse events were reported in therapy A and therapy B.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Compared with therapy C, therapy A and therapy B may appear to be more effective for polyhydramnios. However, the exact effect needs to be confirmed with well-designed large-scale clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Nursing School, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100102, China.
authors.forename: Fen
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yu-fang
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D029001:Herbal Medicine; D006801:Humans; D008516:Medicine, Chinese Traditional; D006831:Polyhydramnios / Q000188:drug therapy*; D011247:Pregnancy